preseason

1. The disconnect isn’t necessarily obvious. If you watch preseason, on the surface, there’s not much outside of the number of minutes for starters between regular season and this. I mean, the game is fundamentally the same. But the speed and intensity differential is startling, and you’ll see the shift for small moments with the…

After years of waiting, Ricky Rubio took the floor for the Minnesota Timberwolves Saturday night against the Milwaukee Bucks. The score isn’t important, it’s a preseason game. What is important is that Rubio finished with 6 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals and just 1 turnover in 24 minutes. Not bad for the youngster’s…

Finally they sell out a sporting event in Tampa Bay… and it’s canceled. The NBA cancelled the preseason game in Tampa between the Heat and Magic, which was schedule for tonight (and was to be shown on ESPN). Officially the NBA says it is because of unsafe playing conditions. Officially — the floor is wet.…

NBA courts get a little wet, what with sweaty men running up and down it, running into each other and falling to the ground. There’s a reason people are out there drying off the courts all game. But when the court is wet even before the game starts? Not good. That’s what is happening today…

Jrue Holiday is quick with the ball. The Knicks Anthony Randolph can be a bit slow on defensive recognition and rotations. Combine those two and you have a dunk that Randolph will be reminded of for a while, preseason game or not. Oh, and don’t sleep on Holiday people, he can flat out ball. (Man…

Dallas center Tyson Chandler may be limited the rest of training camp after injuring his hand in Wednesday night’s preseason game. But expect him to be ready to go when the Mavericks open the season next Wednesday against Chandler’s old team, the Charlotte Bobcats. Chandler cut his hand trying to block a Dwight Howard layup…

Dwyane Wade has his sore hamstring. Mike Miller has a sprained ankle. LeBron James had his sore hamstring and may or may not still have a sore elbow. Mario Chalmers ankle is still acting up. Next Tuesday it will be like the Heat visited Lourdes. When the games matter the nagging injuries will vanish, as…

At least in Greece when something like this happened he could numb the pain with Ouzo… The Suns Josh Childress fractured the fingertip on the index finger of his right hand (his shooting hand) during the Suns Tuesday night exhibition game against the Warriors, according to the Associated Press. He will sit out a week,…

Eddie House has been cleared to get off the bench and go… well, to the Miami Heat bench. But from there get in the game. House has been out of training camp, recovering from off-season shoulder surgery, but doctors cleared him on Tuesday, according to a tweet from our own Ira Winderman, writing for the…

Preseason games are not irrelevant. A team’s record in them can have some correlation to the regular season. Not so much with the elite teams — nobody thinks Boston is any better at 6-1 in the preseason, nobody is reading much into the Lakers being 2-3. Come deep in the playoffs those teams will still…

The Miami Heat have been racking up injuries this preseason like an NFL team so far, including LeBron James missing some time with a tight hamstring. If you were worried that hamstring was going to linger, worry no more — James moved well, had his jumper going and had 33 points on 10 of 17.…

Preseason games aren’t just for working out kinks on the court. The Orlando Magic just turned on the lights and christened the new Amway Center a couple nights before, but Thursday night those lights went out. Literally. The main house lights in the arena dimmed for player introductions — as they do in all buildings…

Who says veteran players don’t have motivation in the preseason? Paul Pierce lobbied to stay in the game then knocked down a 19-foot jumper with 8 seconds left to give the Boston Celtics 104-101 win over the Knicks in Madison Square Garden Wednesday night. Why would he do that for a preseason game? “I got…

The team that would challenge 72-10 is 2-2 (unless you insist on counting a victory over CSKA Moscow, then it is 3-2). Of course, the team that would challenge 72-10 has been on true display for a grand total of 3 minutes, 17 seconds. That was when Dwyane Wade was lost in the exhibition opener…

NBA teams just toured major cities in Europe — London, Barcelona, Milan — while the terror threat was raised. The NBA threw in some extra security. But that was nothing compared to what the Clippers and Spurs are being told while in Mexico City for a preseason game Tuesday night, according to the San Antonio…

We keep telling you not to read too much into preseason games — coaches are resting key players, experimenting with lineups, giving quality minutes to D-League guys and there just generally is not a sense of urgency. It’s a scrimmage, not a game. But when you get really blown out by a high school like…

It was one of the themes of the summer — big bad LeBron vs. the good Kevin Durant. LeBron spurned the team that drafted him, Durant got an extension there. LeBron had an hour-long, self-serving television show to announce his decision while Durant just quietly announced it on twitter after it was done. LeBron took…

Parties with LeBron James seem to follow him around like remoras to a shark. They go on virtually everywhere he goes. In part because some of the people around LeBron make good money throwing these parties or letting LeBron’s name get used in promoting them. LeBron was scheduled to be at a party Thursday night…

Gilbert Arenas looked pretty good in his first game back considering he was suspended most of last season and missed part of training camp with a sprained ankle. He finished with 12 points on 5 of 9 shooting . But the happy-go-lucky, passionate Gilbert Arenas was nowhere to be seen Wednesday, apparently disappearing after being…

Yao Ming is impatient — he wants back on the court. Badly. But after 18 months away from the game and a complex foot surgery he doesn’t want another setback. So he may miss the first preseason game (or more) he told the Houston Chronicle. “When I was playing some scrimmage with some of the…